Rico Rodriguez
Rico Rodriguez is the main character and playable protagonist in the Just Cause game series. Info summary According to the JC2 PDA, Rico was 21 years old when he was scouted by Tom Sheldon in 1986, but according to promotional information for JC3, he joined The Agency at age 18. This led him into the mysterious covert arm of the CIA, simply named "The Agency". He is nicknamed "Scorpio" and is a skilled gunman. History He was born on January 25, 1968 in Mexico. It has been stated (at the official Just Cause facebook page) that he grew up in Medici, but was not born there. Medici is said to be his mother's homeland. It has also been said that it's Rico's homeland. According to an interview with the game director, Ricos parents were killed in action, when Rico escaped the coup in Medici. Anders Bodbacka, senior technical designer for JC3, revealed that Rico was born in Mexico and moved to Medici, which is where his mom is from. Rico left Medici because of Di Ravello's regime. Rico was a racecar driver before joining the Agency (mentioned by developers during an interview about JC3). Rico was approached by the CIA, specifically Tom Sheldon, during the Invasion of Panama in 1989, when Rico was 21 years old. Sheldon took Rico under his wing and became his commanding officer and friend, turning him from a rookie into the top agent he is today. Rico's time in The Agency and in the CIA Rico underwent CIA training and due to his expertise with weapons, vehicles and other gadgets, he was soon accepted into The Agency. This was a unit of the CIA which specialized in "regime-change" operations, which involves overthrowing dictatorships that are being ruled unfairly or are no longer US friendly. During his time with The Agency, Rico trained under Sheldon, who taught Rico the skills and techniques he would need to carry out such dangerous operations and became a good friend and ally. Rico ran a series of black ops to support guerrilla revolutionaries and overthrow evil dictators around the world. Rico also met Maria Kane, another recruit within The Agency. Rico and Maria were intimate some time before the events of the first game, something Sheldon is still oblivious to. Nonetheless, the three became close partners and often dispatched as a team: Sheldon being the commander, in charge of contact with Agency HQ and receiving intel, Maria deals with weapon, vehicle and equipment procurement and Rico as the field operative, carrying out all the actual work. San Esperito - 2005 Roughly around 2005, Rico made a name for himself when he was called to the tropical island of San Esperito, along with Sheldon and Maria, who were already there investigating an unknown conspiracy. This would turn out to be his largest, most difficult and dangerous operation to date. His task was to infiltrate and assist the two factions on the island and cripple dictator Salvador Mendoza, who was believed to be in control of WMDs and finally put an end to his rule. After landing on the island nation, he breaks a certain faction leader out of prison to aid him in his revolution; José Caramicas. Transporting him to safety earned him the friendship of his faction (Guerrillas) and the affections of his grateful sister Esperanza Caramicas. He continued to help the faction and make his way across the nation, meeting new allies and making enemies. ‎ With his allies, Rico proceeded and carried out numerous life-risking tasks that included the sabotaging of all Mendoza's businesses and the killing of his corrupt officials. Eventually, Sheldon, Rico and Maria tracked Mendoza down, who had retreated to his own personal island. Rico carried out a full-blown assault upon the island, and fought his way through Mendoza's personal army. Mendoza fled in a jet with Rico in hot pursuit. After Rico jumped aboard Mendoza's flight, the president took a last ditch chance to escape and leaped from the plane. Rico followed, skydiving above him. Catching up with him in free-fall, Rico placed a time-bomb on Mendoza's back, blowing the president into pieces and ultimately ending Mendoza's evil reign over San Esperito. After the incident, Rico retired from the Agency and disappeared in Mexico. Panau - 2009 Tom Sheldon suspiciously goes missing with millions of dollars in Agency cash, He is suspected of going rogue. The Agency wants him found and killed. Maria Kane personally tracks down Rico, believing him to to be the only person capable of such a mission. She informs Rico about Sheldon's situation, who has disappeared in the nation of Panau. Rico reluctantly returns and accepts the mission when he hears about Sheldon. He and Kane are flown to Panau, in South-East Asia, whose new dictator has suddenly cut all ties to the US. Rico is informed that Sheldon may have gone rogue. Rico grudgingly accepts the fact that he may have to kill his friend and mentor, who taught him everything he knows. Immediately thrown into combat, Rico assaults a military base and retrieves some memory cards with various pieces of intel about the Panau operation on them. Later, Kane and Rico go to visit Karl Blaine, a Swedish Agency asset who has abandoned his mission in favor of gambling and drinking, who is believed to have information on Sheldon. But, after arriving at his house, they are greeted by his apparent girlfriend Jade Tan. Jade tells Rico that Blaine is holed up in the Panau Falls Casino and needs help. Rico and Jade ride to the casino, taking a shine to one-another in the process. Rico then forcefully extracts Blaine from the casino and is repaid with a Black Market contact and the HQ locations of three Panau Factions. Rico is introduced to the factions as a mercenary called "Scorpio" (once or twice called "Scorpion", possibly by mistake). The factions will dig up information regarding the whereabouts of Sheldon in return for Rico's services as a mercenary. Rico works for the "Reapers", led by Bolo Santosi, who is driven by her want for revolution; the "Roaches", led by Razak "The Razor" Razman, a very powerful drug distributor on Panau, though due to his wealth still remains a prominent public figure; and the "Ular Boys", led by Sri Irawan, who is driven simply by his lust for power and independence. All factions disapprove of dictator Pandak "Baby" Panay, who they feel is corrupting their nation. Sure enough, he finds Sheldon and confronts him. Learning about Baby Panay, he realizes that Sheldon had not gone rogue as was believed. Instead, he was on to Panay, whom is believed to have ulterior motives for cutting ties with the US. Rico is given the job of eliminating Panau's corrupt leader to return the country to US friendly status. Sheldon tells Rico to keep working for the factions and causing chaos to flush Panay from his hiding spot and take him down, before departing to make amends with the Agency. As Rico continues to work for the factions, he is abruptly informed that Karl Blaine is missing and isn't to be trusted (he had earlier installed a bug on Rico's PDA). Panay has also captured Jade, who is also revealed as a government agent and was caught snooping around. Rico races to rescue Jade before she is tortured by Panay, and he destroys the base where she is held. From below a frozen lake, a nuclear submarine (U1) surfaces and a convoy makes their escape with Jade thrown into a truck. However, Rico foils the plan and hijacks the truck carrying Jade. Both are then rescued by Kane and Sheldon via helicopter. The four of them take a break on Sheldon's barge boat where Jade expresses her gratitude towards Rico for saving her. She shares the intel she had gathered which reveals that there are three superpower representatives on Panau who also want to drive out Baby Panay. Knowing of the faction's want to remove Panay from presidency, each of the representatives have allied themselves with a certain faction, providing them with financial backing. Alexander Mirkov, a Russian secret service agent is aiding the Roaches; Zhang Sun, a Chinese leader who is backing the Reapers with his promise of revolution and a disgraced Japanese general named Masayo Washio, allied with the Ular Boys. Unfortunately, Jade was caught before finding out why the superpowers want Panay gone, or what their interest in Panau itself is. They all wonder what a small nation like Panau has to offer. Sheldon tells Rico he must continue doing jobs for the factions and retain their trust, in order to discover the locations of these superpower representatives. As Rico prepares to leave, Jade asks what he intends to do, to which Rico replies what he does best, cause chaos. She tells him to take care of himself, but he insists there will be other time for that, jokingly suggesting Jade give him a few tips in the future. Eventually, all three factions unknowingly put Rico in contact with the superpowers, enabling Rico and Sheldon to wipe them out. Sheldon calls Rico to the Three Kings Hotel where Mirkov, Sun and Washio are staying. Ironically, none of them know the others are there too. After confronting and defeating all three, Sheldon and Rico again wonder what Panau has that is able to attract the Chinese, Japanese, Russians. After locating Panay, Sheldon sends Rico and a faction to kill him. Arriving at his lair (Wajah Ramah Fortress), Panay queries if Rico is also on the island to steal its huge oil supply. It suddenly becomes clear that all this was for oil, the superpowers were after Panauan Oil and wanted rid of Panay in order to get to it. The interaction is cut short by Blaine, who believes Panay killed Jade. He sets off a grenade, killing himself and seemingly also Panay. Rico makes a quick exit as the self-destruct sequence activates. Getting to safety, Rico rages at Sheldon for having him risk his life so much just for oil. They are interrupted by Kane who informs them that rival powers have learned of Panay's death and their tankers are headed toward Panau to seize the oil, which will supposedly turn the nation into a field of death and destruction as they all clash over the worlds largest oil supply, with little regard for the inhabitants of the island. Rico is sent to the oil field in preparation for the confrontation of the superpowers, but on his way there, a nuclear submarine (U1) rises from the water. Rico checks it out, only to discover Panay, having survived the grenade explosion, is intent on keeping the oil supply for himself. After being overpowered, Panay flees to the front deck of the sub and reveals to Rico that the fight isn't over. Three Nuclear missiles are directed at the superpowers who have come to Panau to take the oil and a fourth is directed at the US. Panay launches them; however his clothes are snagged on the American one and he is hauled off with it. Rico grapples onto one and quickly disarms the first three as they speed over the water. Then after a brief scuffle with Panay, Rico slams him into the exposed missile interior, from which he's unable to free himself, but instead of disarming the missile, he changes the target coordinates. Rico parachutes to safety and lands on the Agency barge with Sheldon, Kane and Jade. The missile explodes behind him, having hit the prized oil field, much to Sheldon's and Kane's dismay. Rico explains his reasons for destroying oil worth so much, to spare the innocent people in Panau from having to live in fear and poverty due to superpowers clashing over the oil, as without it, all interest in Panau is lost. As the group sail along the waters of Panau, the four raise a glass to good deeds, friends and a job well done. It remains to be seen what Rico has in store next. Note that there's no way that any nuclear bomb could do any damage to an undersea oil field and that any radiation would be safely absorbed and carried off by the sea. Medici Several years after the events of Just Cause 2, Rico leaves The Agency and travels back home to the fictional nation of Medici, located in a fictional Mediterranean archipelago, to overthrow the dictatorship of General Di Ravello. Since Rico is no longer in the Agency, he no longer wears a uniform. In fact he's wearing jeans and work boots. See the Just Cause 3 article for updated info on the game setting, as this article is for info that really can't be known until the game is released. Appearance and Personality During the development of Just Cause, Rico is depicted as the "pretty boy" of spies and of Mulatto-Hispanic heritage, described by developers as being: "The child of one thousand comic books and action movies. He is James Bond, Mad Max, Jason Bourne, El Mariachi, Wolverine, Punisher, Rambo, Tony Montana and Han Solo all rolled into one. With a touch of Enrique Iglesias to top it all off!" Dr. Otto Kleiner described Rico as an ugly troll. Rico has green eyes (best seen in the Firestarter trailer breakdown) and a tattoo of a scorpion on his upper left arm. He was born on 25th January 1968 and his star-sign is Aquarius. In Just Cause, Rico wears a standard issue black ops outfit complete with a thin bulletproof vest and parachute. He also wears a crucifix, which shows that he is a Christian. He talks with a strong Spanish accent. In Just Cause, Rico is portrayed as being vaguely sarcastic but confident in his own abilities and hardly ever loses his temper. He is clearly familiar with the absurdity of the tasks he is given and occasionally quips in reference to this. He is also shown to attract the attention of a few women while on his mission, which might be something new to him (see the quotes section below). According to Maria Kane, he has a habit of breaking things. He can also be seen performing a "sign of the cross" and kissing the cross he's wearing. He does this at the end of the first Just Cause trailer (at the bottom of the page). This is something that he does automatically when you leave him alone and don't touch the controls for some time. If he's holding a weapon at the time, he'll instead look at the weapon. This can sometimes also be seen right after completing a mission. In Just Cause 2, set a few years later, he's sporting a more rugged look. He's more muscular and has slicked his hair back. He instead wears a black shirt with sleeves rolled up, covered by an open-collared buttoned leather vest and also a red arm bandana. Over this he wears a tactical gun holster and fingerless gloves. He also wears a more casual pair of jeans also with gun holsters and a brown stud belt, along with black combat loafers. He still wears the crucifix and now has a more advanced Grappler fitted to his left arm. Rico's personality has darkened in Just Cause 2. He is somewhat cynical, yet retains his dark sense of humor and occasional wit, but is more serious in his tone. He is also more aggressive and unlike before, does lose his temper on occasions. Rico also speaks more in free-roam game play and has lost a little of his Spanish accent. In Just Cause 2 he doesn't have any moral issues with stealing medical supplies, money and vehicle parts from civilians. Quotes San Esperito In missions: *"Another pissant regime that has to be toppled. President has to go." - Aboard the Agency cargo plane, right after the briefing for the first mission Devil's Drop Zone. *"It was getting on my nerves." - Replying to Maria Kane saying "Geez Rico, what the hell did you do to that island?" in the ending cutscene of I've Got the Power. *"You know, it didn't matter that he was the president. It's always the good guy who wins. And today, that's me." - His last words to Salvador Mendoza in the mission Taking Out The Garbage. Salvador had just made a reference to the 1997 movie "Air Force One". During free-roam game play: *"I can't believe I have paid for that." - Rico says this right after the mission Brothers in Arms and at random moments after completing the mission. It is believed that this is a reference to relations of a sexual nature, because of the way that the mission ended. *"Watch what you are doing, aye." - When fighting enemies. *"His weapons, they're just so powerful, don't you think?" - Talking to the player and breaking the fourth wall when fighting enemies. **It's possible he's actually saying "These weapons" instead of "His weapons" *"Here's a message for your buddies at home: Stay there." - When fighting enemies. *"Yeah, hombre. Sometimes I just lose it." - When fighting enemies. *"Careful, you're going to kill somebody." - When fighting enemies. *"Rest in peace amigos!" - When fighting enemies. *"Hope you guys brought your earplugs." - When fighting enemies. *"You see what happens when you make me angry?" - When fighting enemies. *"You guys really want to play with me?" - When fighting enemies. *"Alright, alright, I get the message." - When fighting enemies. *"Sometimes this job is just too good." - When parachuting. *"The open sky, the fresh clean air, what's not to like?" - When parachuting. *"I can't believe I get paid for this" - When parachuting. Panau *"Crazy damned pedestrians!" - After running over some pedestrians. *"That was fun." - After a settlement completion. *"Don't take no passengers." - After Hijacking a vehicle. *"Why go over, when you can go under?" - After flying under a bridge. *"Some day, they'll write books about all of this." - After flying under a bridge. This refers to the secret lives of spies and to the fact that some real world spies have had books written about them later. *"Try to communicate now, punks." - After destroying a Communications Station. *"Try to transport fuel now, you pipeline jerks!" - After destroying a Pipeline. *"One less pipeline, one less problem." - After destroying a Pipeline. *"Don't take it personally, it was just a design fault, that's all." - After destroying a Pipeline. *"Whoa... too close for comfort!" - After hitting the ground if the Parachute is opened too close to the ground. *"Arregh! Son of the Mia!" ''After hitting the ground if the Parachute is opened too close to the ground, or when a vehicle blows up near him. *"''It's a tough job... but someone's gotta do it." - After completing a settlement 100%. *"O''uch, that's gotta hurt the big man's ego!" - When a Pandak "Baby" Panay Statue has been destroyed. *"''Talk about baby boom..." - When destroying the statues mentioned above. *"Oops!" - When tall objects, such as Communications Masts, Cranes or Industrial Chimneys are destroyed, or occasionally when running over a civilian in a car. *"Deal with it." - Cut game content / voice from the Just Cause 2 Beta. *"Haven't lost my touch!" - When destroying an Industrial Chimney. *"Sheesh!" - When opening the parachute right when Rico hits the ground, or when a vehicle blows up near him. *"I hate Ninjas." - During the mission "Mountain Rescue". *"Stay out of the road!" - After running over pedestrians, even if they aren't in the road. *"Rest in pieces!" ''- After assassinating a Colonel. * Sometimes when causing rampant damage to a military base while in a helicopter (one with rockets and guns going at once) he will sing part of March of the Valkyries. Medici * "''Best idea I've had all day!" - After jumping out of a car right before it crashes. Trivia *Among many others, Rico may be a reference to Scorpion from the Mortal Kombat series as his grappling hook is similar to Scorpion's spear and chain. There is also the fact that he often goes by the alias, Scorpio. *Rico, especially in the first Just Cause game, resembles the protagonist of 2003 movie "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" Sheldon Jeffrey Sands. Evidences that prove this: **Rico's appearance from the first game largely resembles Sheldon's: black pants, black long sleeved shirt, black vest and long black hair. **Rico, much like Sheldon, is an operative from a government intelligence agency. Rico from The Agency, while Sheldon was from CIA. **Both characters were involved in a coup against a head of state. However, the roles Rico and Sheldon played are nowhere near similar: Rico was tasked to topple down a dictator (Salvador Mendoza from San Esperito) while Sheldon was tasked to prevent the assassination of the president of Mexico. **Sheldon is the surname of Tom Sheldon, Rico's commanding officer in Just Cause and Just Cause 2. *The game Sleeping Dogs, released on August 14, 2012, has a free bonus for any gamer with a Just Cause 2 save game stored on their hard drive. The bonus is that Wei Shen (the protagonist of Sleeping Dogs) can wear Rico's outfit from Just Cause 2. This outfit allows Wei to "action hijack" cars at a greater distance. The grappling hook, while still represented on the costume skin, unfortunately, does not function and is merely cosmetic. *While running around on the rooftops of the San Esperito towns, or trying to quickly get past any of the various random objects that can be seen in villages, the player has to often use the jump function. If you jump while there's an immovable obstacle in the way, there will be a fart-like noise. See the video at the bottom of the page for a demonstration and Just Cause Bugs and glitches for more glitches. *Rico in Just Cause 2 went through a couple of facial designs during development. These can be seen in a couple of screenshots during the loading screen of the game. *Sometimes in JC2, when he kills a lot of soldiers in a very brief amount of time with either a Minigun or a Machine Gun, he will briefly chuckle like Alexander Mirkov. *Cross necklace. **In Just Cause, if Rico isn't holding a weapon and the player doesn't touch the controls for a while, Rico will automatically perform a cross hand gesture and kiss the cross. While holding a weapon, he would aim the weapon for a moment. **In Just Cause 2 he nolonger does anything at idle, but if you were to grapple to anything in general, realistically the necklace would fly off due to the G-force, but it doesn't. This means that the necklace is attached to his clothing somewhere. *According to this site and this site: **In Just Cause, Rico was originally suppose to be a tattooed man with dreadlocks. **In the original intro of Just Cause 2, Rico was burned-out and had retired to a brothel somewhere in Mexico where he had spent his days since Just Cause 1, drinking. *Just Cause game series art director Zach Schlappi has said: "The character started out kind of goofy. I was thinking he's like a panther, he's graceful, he's sleek, he's strong. In JC 1, my crazy interpretation of him is that he's like a romanticized Che Guevara with a mariachi outfit – almost like Desperado. There is this romance of a Mexican revolution, so I wanted to borrow some of those ideas for the next game." Ricos looks were updated again for Just Cause 3. "Crank with Jason Statham was a big influence in helping us create his zipper top. His equipment is more real life too. For example, the harness is based off a telephone pole operators harness, and the grappling hook is a slight modernization. We asked ourselves, "If Jony Ive was doing weapon design what would that look like?" We want just a touch of that James Bond agency feel without going too far into the goofy and outlandish like Triple X staring Vin Diesel." *"For the player with sharp eyes (or a 4k monitor), you may notice a little special something on the bottom of his boot while wingsuiting." As seen in the gallery below, it is the Avalanche Studios logo. *There are three people in real life with this name. Link to Wikipedia. *He changes a lot between the events of different games: **Attitude to Civilians: Rico apparently hates civilians in Panau instead of being relatively indifferent to them in San Esperito. Take for example: "Get off the streets, you crazy damned pedestrians!" **Health: ***JC1: In San Esperito, he only recovers the last 10% of his health. Anything over that will never regenerate and can only be recovered by Medicine cabinet, or First aid kit. ***JC2: He can regenerate any damage that reduces his health by about 10%, or less. Anything more will need a medicine cabinet. **The Stunt position has changed greatly, but this can be explained by Rico learning new things: ***In JC1, he can jump into position and do literally nothing, but jump from car to car, or car to helicopter, or plane to plane. ***In JC2, Rico can move around between up to 3 positions and use weapons while atop of the vehicle. Rico can even do a flipturn into a vehicle with doors. ***In JC3 it has been reported that Rico will be "attached" to the vehicle, like in JC2, to prevent falling off, but the stunt position covers the whole vehicle and Rico is allowed to completely freely walk all over a moving vehicle. Appearances/Actors *Just Cause game series. **Just Cause voiced by Robin Atkin Downes. **Just Cause 2 voiced by Robin Atkin Downes. **Just Cause 3 voiced by ? Gallery (JC1) Just cause rico gun.jpg|Promotional artwork of Rico with his signature guns, the Holdt R4 Pitbulls, in Just Cause (1). Mendoza statue 2.png|Parachuting near the Giant statue of Salvador Mendoza. San Esperito posters (guerrilla support 2).png|Standing in front of vandalized posters that show support for the Guerrillas. Just Cause (first box cover with mullet).jpg|The earliest Just Cause PC and PS2 box covers had Rico with a mullet haircut. Just Cause PC version box cover.png|A later Just Cause box cover with updated hair. Rico Concept Sketch.png|Rico's early sketch for Just Cause. JC1 promotional art - Rico jumping from plane.PNG|Promotional art. Skydiving from a Huerta SPA Ocelot. JC1 promotional art - Hurst Dagger explosion.PNG|Promotional art. Hurst Dagger explosion. Gallery (JC2) Revolver.jpg|Rico's Signature Gun in Just Cause 2. The White Tiger (Rico upside down).jpg|Tom Sheldon cutting Rico down from a trap in the mission The White Tiger. Rico Rodriguez outfit in Sleeping Dogs.png|The Rico Rodriguez outfit in Sleeping Dogs. Just Cause 2 E3 (lower resolution, but more).jpg|Rico's JC2 ingame model, as seen in an E3 screenshot. Rico's first landing in Panau.jpg|Rico's first landing in Panau, during the mission Welcome to Panau. JC2 Rico in winter camouflage.jpg|In JC2 the character model changes depending on the climate zone. JC2 crane explosion.jpg|JC2, the character model looks wet when it rains. Gallery (JC3) JC3 Rico.png|Breakdown of Rico's equipment and outfit in Just Cause 3. RicosShoesJC3.png|The Avalanche logo can be seen on the heels of his boots in JC3. JC3 Rico artwork.png|JC3's Rico artwork. JC3 Rico Rodriguez (face close-up).png|Close-up of his face in JC3 while Skydiving. JC3 stunt positon.jpg|See Stunt position. 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